


Betrayal and Forgiveness

by immortal_meta



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Betrayal and forgiveness, Crying, Episode: s02e13 Mizumono, First Kiss, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:35:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immortal_meta/pseuds/immortal_meta
Summary: 'We couldn't leave without you'.An alternate scenario of the last scene in Mizumono.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	Betrayal and Forgiveness

Will cautiously enters Hannibal's home. Dripping wet, raindrops slipping through his face, slippering his rough grip on the gun.   
He knows what he's going to see. 

His heartbeat drums in his ears furiously upon seeing the blood flooding out of the closed pantry door. He knows Jack is in there, probably heavily wounded, or dead. He sees what he's done. Every cell in the air is heavy for him to breathe in. 

Will hears quiet sobbing and the sound immediately averts his thoughts to Abigail. But she's dead, isn't she?   
He's turning around slowly, as if to give his mind time to diffuse a hallucination. But it isn't a hallucination.

He sees her. He sees Abigail, completely in shock, and shivering. He lowers his gun slowly, forgetting it ever was in his hand. The sight of Abigail shakes him, fills his eyes, his ears.

"Abigail.." he pleads quietly.

"I didn't know what else to do, so.. I just did what he told me.." Her gentle voice breaking.

He?

His face hardens from the quiet brokenness it assumed when he saw her.

"Where is he?" He rusts out.   
Her trembling calms for a moment, and she looks to his side, behind him. 

Will knows. He hears two footsteps. The acknowledgement of Hannibal's presence overwhelms him. Facing the one he betrayed. The one.. he wants to run away with. The one who didn't get away.  
Will slowly turns around, the realness of the man's presence settling around him.

"You were supposed.. to leave" He whispers. 

Regret floods his every pore when he finally looks at Hannibal.  
The disheveled, bloodied Hannibal before him. He completely forgets about the gun, slipping freely and clanking upon hitting the floor.  
Hannibal looks shattered.   
Betrayal, love, desire to undo, clear and threatening to spill from Hannibal's eyes.

"We couldn't leave without you." He finally answers. Will knows it's true. The moisture in his eyes and over his cheeks isn't rainwater anymore.

It's the moment he sees regret. Regret, desperation. To go back. To give another chance, but not being able to. To forgive.

It's the moment his peripheral catches the slightest glimpse of a knife shimmer.

That's the moment Will steps closer. Losing all cautiousness. Wrapping his arms, his whole being, around Hannibal. Gripping the man as if he's drowning. As if he's surviving.   
An enemy's embrace. A betrayer's embrace. A lover's embrace.  
Everything that could be, everything that is.   
He breathes Hannibal in like he's never going to be able to again.

Hannibal is frozen still with shock, something he never got all that familiar with. The knife clatters loudly on the floor, but they don't hear it. It doesn't matter anymore.   
Hannibal realizes all he would've said with the blade is known. He clutches Will tightly, as if he's scared he'll slip away. Just like their facades slipped away so quickly when they locked eyes this night.   
Like the betrayer's pistol, and the betrayed's blade slipped away.   
Forgotten.   
Forgiven.

"I forgive you. Will."

Will pulls away an inch, bags under his eyes visible, eyes red and wet.  
Hannibal inhales him, and closes his eyes.   
The scent of endless regret. Of realization. The scent of Will. The scent, whose sentiment he so carefully masked as a need for him to buy a new aftershave.   
The scent of salt. Of love. 

The aroma assaults his nose, but the desperation is overwhelming. Overtaking. He breathes him in, again and again, just to hold onto the feeling of being fully enveloped by Will. Like he was a second ago.

He feels a slight stir of the air in front of him, and the scent getting stronger. Hannibal feels Will's lips touch his even before they do. And then they do.

Every thought he's ever had, every fantasy and plot, is forgotten. Hannibal's senses are completely overflowing. He brings his hand up hastily to Will's face. Kisses him with every ounce of love he has. Stroking his face like he'd do if he was stabbing him. But he's not.  
A thought of what could be crosses his mind, a thought of Will on the floor with a slit in his gut, panting and leaking blood. Crying. The imagined grief and tragedy urges Hannibal to deepen the kiss. 

Sliding his tongue onto Will's, tasting him. Tasting every corner, feeling the wetness to his core. 

Shivers run down Will's spine and tears run down his face, as if having shared the imagined outcome that crossed Hannibal's mind. His hands both tangle in the silver hair, grasping and clenching his fingers around it. Desperately broken at every moment apart from him.  
Begging, shouting 'Forgive me, Hannibal'. 

And he does. Hannibal breaks the kiss, eyes still closed.  
"I forgive you." Hannibal whispers again. He opens his eyes. Will's face is slightly scrunched up in a tragic expression, and Hannibal could almost feel the tension in Will's throat, from the held back, the unsaid.  
Will closes his eyes again. He leans lower and rests his head on Hannibal's shoulder, his forehead sensing the throbbing pulse in Hannibal's neck.   
"..I love you.. Hannibal." His voice is as contained as he could make it, barely a whisper.

Hannibal's heart clenches and his stomach stirs at the words, his vision blurring and slowly spinning.  
He couldn't hold back a painful grunt. 

"I love you, Will. Endlessly"


End file.
